In the Wild

Opossum Breaks Into Liquor Store And Takes Full Advantage

When a policeman showed up at a wildlife rescue center in Okaloosa County, Florida, he was carrying a cardboard box with, well, a drunk little animal inside.

"I thought it was just a practical joke," Michelle Pettis, a wildlife health technician at Emerald Coast Wildlife Refuge, told The Dodo. "But I opened the box and there was the opossum. She definitely wasn't acting normal."

The wild opossum had apparently broken into Cash's Liquor Store on the morning after Thanksgiving. An employee discovered her beside a broken bottle of bourbon.

Police officers are probably used to dealing with inebriated individuals. But this case was, presumably, slightly different.

Still, the employee and responding officer managed to wrangle the tipsy fur ball into a box. And they did just the right thing, bringing her to a wildlife rescue center for help. "I’m still not sure why that tiny sample bottle was in there," Pettis added.

Rescuers gave the animal fluids — "She perked up rather quickly after that," Pettis said — and after a few days in their care, the opossum seemed sober enough to return to the wild.

But the story of the opossum's misadventure seems to be resonating with human beings as they prepare for the stress of the holidays. "I've found my spirit animal at last," one commenter wrote.

"She needs a Waffle House breakfast," another added. "Trust me on this one."